Cheri Guy is a teacher at Desert Pines High School in a low income area of Las Vegas, where for 10 years, they’ve had a program called “Wishmas”. Students share a gift they want and why, and teachers and staff use their own money to fulfill as many wishes as possible. One student’s wish was for all their classmates’ wishes to be granted, another read, “I want my sister to be happy on her birthday.”. There were wishes for the cost of a yearbook, the cost of a graduation cap and gown, slippers, a bag of peanut M&Ms. In early November Guy shared a video of herself on TikTok reacting to the wishes, and on her profile, added links to a Venmo account and an Amazon wish list. In hours, people donated wrapping paper and purchased over 300 items on the Amazon wish list alone, in addition to sending money and other gifts. Ms. Guy said “We far exceeded anything I could have dreamed of, anything any of us could have dreamed of. It means more than just the item that they had in their hands. It meant they were valued, and they were valued not only by their own teachers or their own school community, but potentially by thousands of people that they may never meet, but now they know that they’ve been recognized and shown love.”
Please know that you are valued and loved. Merry Christmas.